Terriks did a great job with her mockups! I think the window panels are right, but I would NOT put panels on either side of the french doors. I think you are changing the effect of the built-ins and crowding the space visually. As I said, I would do roman shades or gathered panels on the doors in the same fabric as your window panels. The other thing I would love to see would be a shelf that spans between the two built-ins, probably at the height of the top shelves in the cabinets. Paint the shelf the same color as the cabinets. You could paint the wall behind that shelf in the cabinet color as well, so it would feel like a part of the cabinets, and the crown above it would help that feeling. What I keep thinking about in the room is painting the back walls of the cabinets in the accent color of the lamps, or another color if you prefer. In that case, I would paint behind the shelf over the doors in that same accent color.

Ah! Thanks. So cutting through it would ruin the stability of the door. Makes sense. Are the sides of a hollow-core door about 2 inches thick as well? Or thinner? Since it's to be a sliding door, I also thought about cutting off one corner, cutting up from the bottom, and then in from the left side. This would be on the advancing edge. This would not be flapped, just open. I thought if then we buy the door a little oversize, we could pull it more closed to seal off this small opening if needed. It's to be a surface mount system, like a barn door, mounted on the side away from the kitchen, so door would be oversize on the pantry side and overlap the doorframe by whatever we decide. The hardware is from Johnson Hardware, that makes sliding door systems. We haven't bought the door yet. We could go with a solid door: I looked at some that were oak veneer with a particle board interior, and edges in pine. The door/hardware company was urging a solid core door on me, but I am concerned about the weight with a sliding door. I have had nothing but hollow core doors in every house before. (We did not discuss the cat-flap issue!) Thanks for your help: suggestions are welcome. Both on the door in general and the cat-flap.

Thanks, everyone, for your comments and suggestions. You guys actually brought up a point that's festered in my head for a while -- what's up with our door clearances? There must be a 1-2" gap under our bedroom doors. I suspect they were undercut to make room for carpeting at one time, but then the carpeting was (thankfully) taken out. I'd love to get a door that significantly reduces the gap, as some of you suggested, but I also remember hearing something to the effect of what handymac was saying -- you need the larger clearance to ensure proper air circulation/house pressure balancing. If there's one thing we absolutely don't want to make worse, it's the HVAC balancing in our house. It's already dreadful. This whole subject opens up a can of worms for me. In fact, I wonder if I should spend a little time over at the HVAC forum... Cheers, Ava

Diana, TY for the pictures - we like the casing with the band and the crown headpieces. We realize crown is not traditional shaker but thought a simple, clean headpiece would look nice and match the kitchen crown (cove) and new dining crown (TBD but also likely cove) which will be put up. The casing we choose will be used throughout the 1st floor with the exception of our breakfast area and adjoining family room - we'll likey change out these rooms later to match the new work. Patrica, The door to the right is a closet, the middle door goes to our garage and the door to the left goes to a study. FWIW, below is the kitchen floor plan. only the left door in the picture I posted is shown on this drawing. the other two doors are on the upper left wall. Thanks all - any and all input is appreciated and welcome!